1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to cellular mobile communication systems, and more specifically to diversity reception of mobile-transmitted signals. The present invention is particularly useful for time division multiple access time division duplex (TDMA-TDD) mode of operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional cell-site station of a TDMA-TDD mobile communication network, an array of antennas is used for diversity reception of multipath components of a mobile-transmitted, uplink traffic signal. Receivers are connected to the antennas for demodulation and detection of strength indication signals. The strength indication signals are examined and the best antenna is selected for receiving the highest multipath component. This antenna is also used during a subsequent transmit mode to obtain transmit diversity gain. Control signals, on the other hand, are transmitted using one of the antennas so that the range of the transmitted control signals delineates the boundary of the cell. Since no transmit diversity gain is obtained from the transmission of downlink control signals, their reachable extent is smaller than that of the downlink traffic signals. The traffic signals thus propagate beyond the boundary of the cell, and cause interference with adjacent cells.